Facebook today released its latest version 3.1 of its mobile iPhone app, bringing a key heavily requested feature to the device: push notifications.

iPhone users no longer have to obsessively manually refresh their Facebook app for new messages or activity. They can just let it run in the background, and get the notifications pushed to them as they happen, in almost real-time.

The Facebook 3.1 app now lets users get push notifications from Facebook messages, wall-posts, friend requests and confirmations, tags, events, and comments, with a pop-up message and a sound.

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Yahoo today released two new important mobile apps, a native Flickr iPhone app (iTunes) along with a Yahoo Finance BlackBerry application.

The Flickr iPhone app is now the best way to upload, manage, and share your photos on Flickr via the iPhone. You can seamlessly upload photos and add information to photos such as descriptions and tags. You can also view and comment on photos from other users.

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The popular live video community Ustream has released its iPhone app, allowing you to upload videos directly to the service. It was rumored the app would let you publish a live video feed from your iPhone, but that is not the case because of current app store terms set by Apple. The app also lets you download existing videos from the service and edit them. You can also share your iPhone video uploads via Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Via

Yesterday we thought the first iPhone GPS turn-by-turn app to become available would be the MobileNavigator from Navigon.

Today, AT&T released its Navigator app, becoming the first full featured voice-prompted turn-by-turn GPS navigation app to become available on the new iPhone in North America.

The AT&T Navigator app offers voice-guided turn-by-turn notifications, 3D maps, automatic rerouting, POIs, local search, current speed, estimated time to arrival, search for lowest gas prices, search results also tell you how far they currently are, among other features.

The app is a free download, but requires a constant monthly fee of $9.95. The subscription also includes app and new map updates.

The app is now available on iTunes.

AT&T Navigator is built by Sunnyvalue, California-based TeleNav.

The AT&T Navigator seems like a good alternative, and a good option for anyone looking for a GPS solution who wants to use the service for say one month and only pay that small amount.

One of the biggest drawbacks of AT&T Navigator, compared to the other GPS iPhone apps such as the one from Navigon and the upcoming one from TomTom, is that the apps are downloaded in real-time on the AT&T app, meaning if you don’t have cellular coverage in an area, it simply won’t work. So, maybe the other higher priced GPS apps are more worth while, and even more cost-effective in the longer run.

It remains to be seen when TomTom will release their confirmed iPhone app.

With the launch of the new iPhone 3G S, the first push IM client for the iPhone has been launched and is now available in iTunes. AIM is the first client to roll out with the new push notifications. The app can remain running and messages, alerts, sounds, and icon badges, and all other notifications happen as they occur. You can customize how the alerts are displayed, you can choose to have them play a sound, a pop up tool tip, or have an icon badge, or any combination. The downside to the app is the free version (iTunes) is supported with advertisements. The full non-ad version costs $2.99 (iTunes).

The first more advanced GPS turn-by-turn navigation app to launch on the iPhone seems to be the MobileNavigator Europe app from Navigon. The app is now listed on iTunes and marked as “available soon” on the company website.

The app features 2D and 3D displays, most recent NAVTEQ maps with 2.1M+ European POIs, Real Sign Post display, Take Me Home function, Speed Assistant, portrait and landscape support, among many other features. The complete feature set can be found here.

The app currently only supports maps of select European areas. The total download size required on your iPhone is 1.65GB.

This app is very aggressively priced at $94.99.

The same company also offers its app on other platforms such as Symbian and Windows Mobile.

The other large players in the GPS navigation space such as TomTom will also offer their own iPhone apps (see the TomTom iPhone video here) given how lucrative the app store can be. The iPhone now offers TomTom the possibility of a real revenue stream given how closed the iPhone OS is when it comes to cracked software, compared to other platforms TomTom is available on such as Symbian.

The other big player in the space, Garmin, has opted to develop its own branded smartphone dubbed the Nuvifone (see hands on video) with its GPS app installed. Although unveiled on February 12, 2009, the Nuvifone is still not on the horizon for a release. Although unannounced, we can likely expect Garmin to also release an iPhone version as well to remain competitive.

Bloggers that power their community with WordPress and are BlackBerry owners will be glad to hear that WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg (pictured above) confirmed during his speech at WordCamp in San Francisco that Automattic (the company behind WordPress) would release a native blogging BlackBerry app. It was also noted at the event WordPress 2.8 is coming and version 2.7 is doing well with very few bugs.

He declined to provide any more information relating to features and a possible release date.

A WordPress mobile app was already available since July 22, 2008 for the iPhone. We can likely expect the BlackBerry version to be very similar as well.

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Artist Jorge Colombo done something pretty extraordinary. He created the front-page cover of The New Yorker all on his iPhone.

Jorge simply stood on 42nd ST in NY for about an hour straight to complete the piece of art.

Jorge only purchased his first iPhone last February and quickly purchased the Bushes app ($4.99 iTunes) because he liked the fact he could easily “carry all [his] pens and brushes and notepads with [him]”

The iPhone is being used more and more towards media.

Today, popular Japanese video game maker Capcom (creator of popular titles including Street Fighter and the Resident Evil series) announced the company plans to release at least ten titles for the iPhone by March 2010.

Capcom says it will develop iPhone version games to capitalize on the success of the iPhone as a mobile gaming platform. Capcom is forecasting a 6% increase in operating profit to a record 15.5 billion yen by the end of this fiscal year.

Update: Yahoo will NOT cease BlackBerry (and other mobile platform development). Yahoo! remains committed to improving Yahoo! Mobile for web and their existing cross-platform applications, as well as developing new and engaging experiences for consumers across various devices and platforms, including RIM, Apple, Widows Mobile, Nokia and more.

Yahoo will completely stop (now confirmed) developing its mobile application for the BlackBerry platform to focus its efforts solely towards the iPhone.

According to developer job applicants for Yahoo’s Mobile BlackBerry team, the applicants
received a reply from Yahoo that read, “Yahoo has decided to cease development [on the BlackBerry platform]”

Yahoo will now only continue to build the exclusive app for the iPhone, and simply continue to maintain the existing mobile browser based site. The company aims at bringing the app experiences straight to the mobile browser (remains to be seen). Yahoo Mobile chief executive Adam Taggart previously said “you can always do more with an app on your phone,” but maintained the company remains committed to both apps and the browser.

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SlingPlayer Mobile has just been launched on the iPhone. The app lets you watch live TV from your at home cable, satellite and DVR signals by streaming live content. Note, that SlingPlayer Mobile does not support Sling Classic, AV, and Tuner models, but will work with the new Slingbox and other legacy devices.

The app was delayed because of excessive bandwidth concerns on AT&T’s network. The app has now been launched, but the service is restricted to only WiFi and will not work via 3G as it has been blocked by AT&T.

AT&T today released an official statement saying, “Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer [including the iPhone], are specifically prohibited under our terms of service,” AT&T went on to say, “Slingbox, which would use large amounts of wireless network capacity, could create congestion and potentially prevent other customers from using the network. The application does not run on our 3G

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